When I first did a full review of this year's #RPGaDay, I had pall of dread overcome me, and only hit Day 2.
"Stature"
Not wanting to go with Gnome Titans and Halflings in Hackmaster... again... I reviewed the alternative question: What does one character’s stature in their community mean to them?
The best character for that would be Sneaky Pete, the Mutant Weasel Scout in our current Gamma World 4th Edition online game.
Pete is a bit of a pompous ass, a lone wolf (weasel) scout well before he met the other members of the De Facto Explorers with his one burrow/treehouse, along the Big River, outside of Riverbend. With a weakness to the "Glow" (Radiation) and a strange addiction to yellow curry powder.
And his one underlying theme he focuses on is the defense of Riverbend.
It's a miracle in itself that a large threat hasn't levelled the entire town. Attacks are disorganized and manageable, even with incompetent leadership.
Pete's been active at "modernizing the town: building a palisade around the town center, changing training methods and drills, even installing a guard post in the unused church steeple, including installing his friend Sonny Helianthus' invention the "spear thrower" into the tower.
(And if you picture an automatic football throwing machine amped up to sending other objects flying... you would be right.)
He does not always have tact. He is not always diplomacy. But the weasel has passion.
Because, deep down, Pete is desperate. He wants to be part of the community that's allowed him to exist. Pete wants more structure. Pete may also wants to burn the town to the ground.
The greatest theme that has developed over 140 episodes? Outside of one other oddly deranged character who he barely shares DNA with, he hasn't encountered another weasel since his youth.
He's encountered a lot of weasel-adjacent folks, including an entire ferret community in the Sub-Levels of KIA Academy. But he vocally and violently dissociates himself from their kind.
We should be wrapping up an epic quest in the campaign in the next few weeks, and everyone is looking forward for a winter of recuperation back in Riverbend. Pete's seen families betray and systems fail his friends. Hopefully he takes that back to the taverns and meeting rooms and keeps improving the town.
And maybe, just maybe, another weasel will make an appearance.
Alternative Question: What does one character’s stature in their community mean to them?
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